- LOCATING AND EXCAVATING -

DISCOVERY

THE STORY BEGINS THUS

Alderney fisherman, Bertie Cosheril, found a long concreted object tangled up in the back-line of one of his lobster pots. Several days later Bertie took it to the Alderney Museum whose then curator agreed with him that it was most likely a nineteenth century shoulder-arm. Back at home he broke away the concretion with a hammer to reveal a musket.

The local dive club was the next port of call – Fred Shaw and Dave Rendell decided the site was worth investigating. It was agreed that they would rendezvous at sea with Bertie, at a spot not far from where the musket had been recovered. It was early evening when they met; there was a breeze and the sea was ‘lumpy’. Bertie took them to the location and while Dave remained on the surface to look after the boat, Fred dived. Bertie’s last words before heading off to tend his pots were:

“I hope you find a cannon, Fred”.

Fred made his descent directly on to a cannon. Moving out he found a second cannon and a timber which was ‘flapping slightly in the current’.

AND THUS IT CONTINUES

Several further dives were made during which clay pipe 237, gaming piece 1105 and a range of pottery fragments were recovered. No further diving took place until 1990, but it was not until the following year that the site was relocated and the wreck was tentatively dated to the sixteenth century or very early seventeenth century.
During this phase, which lasted nine months, nearly 200 artefacts were recovered. These included a sounding lead, animal bones, muskets, pan weights and additional pottery fragments.

The discovery was announced to the world at a press conference on the 26th June 1992. The States of Alderney passed legislation, The Alderney Maritime Trust Incorporation Law 1994, creating the Alderney Maritime Trust to safeguard the wreck and develop it’s archaeology.